This present invention relates to medical imaging. In particular, image processing adapts to speckle characteristics.
Scanning to generate medical images of a patient may cause speckle. Speckle results from reflections from structure smaller than the resolution of the scanning. Speckle size varies based on operation conditions, such as system settings and patient anatomy. Speckle appears in associated images as noise.
In medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging, filters or other processes may reduce or eliminate speckle information after acquisition and beamforming. Frequency and spatial compounding are relatively simple approaches. In more complicated approaches, speckle size is estimated for a given image from correlation length measurement or spectrum analysis. However, these computationally complex measurements may provide inappropriate or inaccurate results for different image regions.